Elizabeth “Libby” Getz

Mary Elizabeth “Libby” Cozad Getz, 89, died January 29,2008 at The Forest at Duke, Durham, North Carolina.

Memorial services are planned for later dates both in Durham and at the Getz summer home near Whitehall, Michigan. Burial will be in the family plot at Oakwood Cemetery, Geneseo, Illinois.

Memorials may be made to The Forest at Duke Benevolent Fund, 2701 Pickett Rd., Durham, NC 27705 or to DACOR Bacon House Foundation, c/o DACOR Inc, 1801 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20006. The former is to assist those who outlive their resources at The Forest, and the latter assists needy members of retired Foreign Service families.

Trimble Funeral Home, Moline, is assisting the family with arrangements.

Libby was born April 29, 1918, in Rock Island, Illinois, to Harry Work and Katherine Maher Cozad. She graduated from the Villa de Chantal in Rock Island and attended The University of Illinois. She worked in New York and Chicago before returning to Rock Island where she married John I. Getz in 1941. When John was inducted into the Army during World War II and went to the Pacific with an Armored Division, Libby joined the American Red Cross and served in the European Theater. She was with Red Cross bases in England and after D-Day served on the continent. One of her treasured memories was having dinner with Supreme Commander General Dwight Eisenhower in Berlin at the end of the war and enjoying a game of bridge with him.

After World War II, Libby and John discovered their love of travel, so after additional schooling, John joined the U. S. Foreign Service. They served in various U.S. Embassies around the world including Saigon, Rome and Bangkok. They lived in Paris for three years while John served as the assistant to the secretary general of NATO. Their last posting before retiring was Malta where John was the American Ambassador. After retirement, they remained on Malta for several years, before returning home. Their last retirement home was at The Forest at Duke in Durham, North Carolina.

They enjoyed their summers in a home they built in 1981 near the Getz cottages at Michillinda, Whitehall, Michigan.

Libby's husband, John, died December 6, 2003. She is survived by brothers Bernard Cozad of Coal Valley, Illinois, and Thomas Cozad of Davenport, Iowa; a sister Eleanor “Punky” Hunter of East Moline, Illinois, and sister-in-law Elizabeth Cozad of Coral Gables, Florida. Brothers Harry and Richard preceded her in death. Other survivors are sisters-in-law Carolyn Getz Bartholomew of Delray Beach, Florida, Sara Getz Winwood of Springfield, Ohio, brother-in-law Thomas Getz of Moline, Illinois, and many nephews and nieces and their children in both the Cozad and Getz Families.

Remembrances and condolences may be shared with the family at TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.